Birmingham City 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 0

Just two days after Trevor Francis signed him from Stockport County for £500,000, Chris Marsden took only eight minutes to announce his arrival at Birmingham City.

The midfielder, who was 28 at the time, made his first appearance against his former club Wolves and lined up in a quality midfield which consisted of Martin O’Connor, Bryan Hughes and Jon McCarthy.

Blues went into the game in ninth place, without a win in four after their outstanding start to the campaign had faltered.

So Marsden’s chip over Mike Stowell could not have been more timely for club or player, although at the end of the season Blues would go on to miss out on the Championship play-off places on goals scored.

The Sheffield-born midfielder would go on to play 59 times for Blues before being sold to Southampton for a £300,000 profit.

That debut goal was one of six he scored in his time at Birmingham and his performances were good enough to earn him a move to the Premier League.

Birmingham City manager Gary Rowett training the academy players

Coincidentally his final match for Blues came in November 1998 - away to Wolves, in a visiting side, which also contained Gary Rowett, lost 3-1.

And perhaps even more coincidentally on the same day in 1974, 23 years before Marsden’s debut, his manager Francis bagged the first hat-trick of his illustrious playing career.